For incontinent bedridden persons liquid-impervious pads are generally used over matresses and sheets but it is accepted that substantial accumulations of body liquids may not be contained by conventional pads. Not only is bedding then soiled but accumulations in contact with the skin for any prolonged period pose grave danger of irritation and even ulceration.
It is important, therefore, that discharged body-liquids be collected promptly and removed from contact with the incontinent person. To achieve this without repeated changes of bedding various forms of apparatus have been proposed to collect the body liquids and draw them off by suction from beneath the patient. Perhaps the most relevant of these prior designs is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,356 in which a shallow expansive pan-like structure overlayed by a perforated cover is connected by a tube to a suction pump. A disadvantage of that design is that it is sufficiently thick to require its own surrounding foam pad of equivalent thickness to present to the patient an even and continuous mattress surface. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,302 a somewhat similar pan-like structure is disclosed but again it is relatively thick and must be almost as extensive as the mattress itself to be comfortable to the patient.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a laminated mattress pad for use with body-liquid collecting and mattress protecting apparatus which is as thin as possible so that it can lie directly on top of the mattress and sheets without being a discomfort to the patient.